Supreme Court Decision Alert - January 20, 2010

Originally published January 20, 2010

Keywords: Supreme Court, jurisdiction, intervention, compelling interest, non-state entity

Today the Supreme Court issued a decision, described below, of interest to the business community.

The Supreme Court's Original Jurisdiction—Standard for Intervention by Non-State Entities

South Carolina v. North Carolina, No. 138 Orig.

Under 28 U.S.C. § 1251, the Supreme Court exercises "original and exclusive jurisdiction" to resolve "controversies between two or more States." Because original jurisdiction cases tax its limited resources, the Court has held that a party wishing to intervene in such an action must demonstrate a "compelling interest in his own right, apart from his interest in a class with all other citizens and creatures of the state, which interest is not properly represented by the state." New Jersey v. New York, 345 U. S. 369, 373 (1953) (per curiam). Today, in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court concluded